Cutbacks For Uconn Suggested

A University of Connecticut committee has spared academic programs for now, but has recommended erasing a $4.5 million deficit by trimming athletic, alumni and auditorium programs.

The long-awaited report of the 16-member program review committee was greeted Friday with some relief that instruction programs were unscathed and layoffs were not needed. The work of the committee, which has been deliberating in secret for more than six months, has been the subject of much speculation on the Storrs campus.

Academic departments may not be so lucky in the fall when the committee is expected to recommend more drastic cuts, including the elimination of some programs. The committee is faced with trying to erase a $17.5 million deficit predicted for 1993-94.

"Remember this is only the first of two reports," said Karen Grava Williams, a UConn spokeswoman. "The next one is likely to call for major program reductions."

UConn President Harry J. Hartley released the committee report Friday to the board of trustees, which was meeting at the UConn Health Center in Farmington. The trustees did not debate the report, and Hartley said he planned to follow the committee's guidelines as he tries to erase the last of a $30 million deficit that had been projected for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

He has already targeted a tuition increase, $13 million in reserves and $10 million in savings because of early retirements to close the budget gap.

The committee, led by liberal arts dean Frank D. Vasington, recommended a permanent $800,000 cut in the $10 million athletic budget; a $300,000 cut in the extension course budget; $250,000 in the alumni office and $150,000 in the Jorgensen Auditorium budget.

One-time cuts for 1992-93 included $1.1 million in deferred maintenance of academic buildings, $795,000 in equipment and $50,000 in telephone toll calls.